Back in the 1970s, when I married, it seemed that everyone was getting divorced.  Articles by social scientists and others were full of prognostications about the end of marriage as an institution. But a recent New York Times article by Johns Hopkins sociologist Andrew Cherlin makes it clear that it has not turned out this way.  In a graphic picture that is “worth a thousand words,” Cherlin displays a pattern that many social scientists are now familiar with: Rates of marriage are high and rates of divorce low among white-collar professionals and others with more education, but marriage rates are still low and divorce rates are high among blue-collar and service workers.

Do you think the security provided by more income is the reason for the discrepancy, or might other factors be involved?  Professor Cherlin provides some other explanations, including a link to levels of inequality.  You can read more at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/opinion/sunday/the-real-reason-richer-people-marry.html

Can you imagine other ways to graph the changes and differences?  What additional questions are raised by the summary graph in the article?